Array dereferencing of scalars

The behavior of dereferencing scalars as if they were arrays or strings is arguable: <?php $foo = 42; $foo['bar']; // => NULL This happens without notice or warning, whereas the array dereferencing of objects results in a fatal error: <?php $foo = new stdClass; $foo['bar']; // Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array There are several bug reports and feature requests regarding this behavior, the most interesting being #54556[1] and #64194[2]. The former has a patch attached, for the latter there is a PR[3]. Would throwing a notice or a warning on array deferencing scalars be acceptable for PHP 7.0, or does this need an RFC? [1] <https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=54556> [2] <https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64194> [3] <https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/1269> -- Christoph M. Becker